IndustryGamers - Informing the Games Industry

Game Revenue Surpasses Movies in U.K.

Posted January 4, 2010 by David Radd

The latest evidence of gaming having emerged as a major entertainment industry came today from The Daily Telegraph. The data collected suggests that more money was spent on games than on movie tickets and DVDs over the past year in the U.K.

GFK Chart-Track indicated that 1.73 billion British pounds ($2.78 billion) was spent during the twelve-month period ending September 2009. While cinema in the U.K. had its best year in nearly three decades, disc sales came in just under 200 million pounds ($322 billion), while the box office totaled up 1 billion pounds ($1.61 billion).

"Like anything digital, Parliament has a very narrow view of video games. Too many politicians think video games are played by teenage boys staying up all night shooting things in their bedroom,” said former Cabinet Office minister Tom Watson. "And yes there are plenty of those, but there also a huge range of people of many different ages who love playing games. The industry has matured over the last decade, and so too have gamers."

Watson also noted that despite the obvious gains in the industry, the best selling and acclaimed Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 demonstrated how misunderstood games are on the whole, with many concentrating on the controversial airport scene. "Yes, let's have a debate about unpleasant content in video games, but don't beat up on the whole industry," he said.

David Radd has worked as a gaming journalist since 2004 at sites such as GamerFeed, Gigex and GameDaily Biz.